WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Romantics Anonymous, Bristol Old Vic
Tasty musical about chocolate and love from Wise Children
LOVE INTEREST: Carly Bawden (Angelique) and Marc Antolin (Jean Rene)
[Steve Tanner] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
EMMA RICE’S swansong as artistic director at London’s Globe Theatre was this show and it’s been resurrected by her new company Wise Children at Bristol Old Vic before touring the US.
Based on French film Les Emotifs Anonymes, Romantics Anonymous follows the painfully shy chocolate savant Angelique, who finds love and fulfilment with Jean-Rene, the socially paralysed owner of a failing chocolate factory.
The production has many of Rice’s trademark touches. Never rushed and predominantly gentle, the show unfolds with a clarity and simplicity that has real charm and style as the Breton-shirted, beret-wearing chorus generate a humorous Parisian appeal.
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